W H Clements was already a Territorial Army recruit prior to the outbreak of the war, at the time, he was working for P H Smith a reputable builder of Highgrove Street, Reading, as a Builder Decorator & Plumber, living at 24 Whitley Street with his wife Evelyn and 2 daughters Evelyn and Patricia, later his Mother in law and sister in law lived at the same address. His mother and my grand father also W H Clements originally hailed from Hailey nr Witney in Oxfordshire and was brought up in the Carpenters Arms public House along the main road. Prior to leaving for France, time was spent in the Horse and Jockey pub (where some damage occurred to the premises and the landlord Mr Dunsden was suitably reimbursed !!!!)His epic journey started January 1940 from Standford in the Vale nr Farringdon onto the port of Southampton to :Le Harve from here the 226th Field Company Riyal Engineers travelled onto Yvetot then to Allery in Northern France during stays at these locations they constructed Pill boxes and Block houses (reinforced buildings which held upto 6 soldiers , repaired roads etc obtaining construction materials from various areas in the locality. Much of the time in March/April 1940 was being based at Deuxville nr Nancy where again they were involved mainly on construction works. A strange revelation was, when I was amassing the information from Prisoners Questionnaires, was that his brother in law, Frederick John Cook (also a Sapper in the Royal Engineers) gave the address at 24 Whitley Street as a C/O of, was also a POW at Stalag 344 but his prisoners questionnaire report was not as detailed as my father's. Father's basic training being undertaken in Wiltshire. He was called up in January 1939 and joined the 226th Field Company Royal Engineers at Reading, this company joined the 48th Midland Division No 1 and this Division / 145 Brigade left the UK with the BEF (British expeditionary force) in January 1940 his soldier number was 2069710 Leaving from Southampton to Le Harve on landing in France and made its ...